How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart


Pam Anderson - 2000
    Times have changed. Today we have an overwhelming array of ingredients and a fraction of the cooking time, but Anderson believes the secret to getting dinner on the table lies in the past. After a long day, who has the energy to look up a recipe and search for the right ingredients before ever starting to cook? To make dinner night after night, Anderson believes the first two steps--looking for a recipe, then scrambling for the exact ingredients--must be eliminated.  Understanding that most recipes are simply "variations on a theme," she innovatively teaches technique, ultimately eliminating the need for recipes.Once the technique or formula is mastered, Anderson encourages inexperienced as well as veteran cooks to spread their culinary wings.  For example, after learning to sear a steak, it's understood that the same method works for scallops, tuna, hamburger, swordfish, salmon, pork tenderloin, and more. You never need to look at a recipe again. Vary the look and flavor of these dishes with interchangeable pan sauces, salsas, relishes, and butters.Best of all, these recipes rise above the mundane Monday-through-Friday fare.  Imagine homemade ravioli and lasagna for weeknight supper, or from-scratch tomato sauce before the pasta water has even boiled.  Last-minute guests? Dress up simple tomato sauce with capers and olives or shrimp and red pepper flakes. Drizzle sautéed chicken breasts with a balsamic vinegar pan sauce. Anderson teaches you how to do it--without a recipe. Don't buy exotic ingredients and follow tedious instructions for making hors d'oeuvres. Forage through the pantry and refrigerator for quick appetizers. The ingredients are all there; the method is in your head. Master four simple potato dishes--a bake, a cake, a mash, and a roast--compatible with many meals. Learn how to make the five-minute dinner salad, easily changing its look and flavor depending on the season and occasion. Tuck a few dessert techniques in your back pocket and effortlessly turn any meal into a special occasion.There's real rhyme and reason to Pam's method at the beginning of every chapter: To dress greens, "Drizzle salad with oil, salt, and pepper, then toss until just slick. Sprinkle in some vinegar to give it a little kick." To make a frittata, "Cook eggs without stirring until set around the edges. Bake until puffy, then cut it into wedges." Each chapter also contains a helpful at-a-glance chart that highlights the key points of every technique, and a master recipe with enough variations to keep you going until you've learned how to cook without a book.

Whole Food Cooking Every Day: Transform the Way You Eat with 250 Vegetarian Recipes Free of Gluten, Dairy, and Refined Sugar


Amy Chaplin - 2019
    In 20 chapters, Chaplin shares ingenious recipes incorporating the foods that are key to a healthy diet: seeds and nuts, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and plant-based foods. Chaplin shares her secrets for eating healthy every day: mastering some key recipes and reliable techniques and then varying the ingredients based on the occasion, the season, and what you’re craving. Once the reader learns one of Chaplin’s base recipes, whether for gluten-free muffins, millet porridge, or baked marinated tempeh, the ways to adapt and customize it are endless: change the fruit depending on the season, include nuts or seeds for extra protein, or even change the dressing or flavoring to keep a diet varied. Chaplin encourages readers to seek out local and organic ingredients, stock their pantries with nutrient-rich whole food ingredients, prep ahead of time, and, most important, cook at home.

Milk Street: Tuesday Nights: More than 200 Simple Weeknight Suppers that Deliver Bold Flavor, Fast


Christopher Kimball - 2018
    That means every Tuesday Nights recipe delivers big, bold flavors, but the cooking is quick and easy--simple enough for the middle of the week. Kimball and his team of cooks and editors search the world for straightforward techniques that deliver delicious dinners in less time. Here they present more than 200 solutions that will transform your weeknight cooking, showing how to make simple, healthy, delicious meals using pantry staples and just a few other ingredients. Here are some of the fresh, inventive meals that come together in minutes:Miso-Ginger Chicken SaladRigatoni Carbonara with RicottaVietnamese Meatball Lettuce WrapsPeanut-Sesame NoodlesWhite Balsamic Chicken with TarragonSeared Strip Steak with Almond-Rosemary Salsa VerdeChocolate-Tahini PuddingTuesday Nights is organized by the way you cook. Some chapters focus on time--with recipes that are Fast (under an hour, start to finish), Faster (45 minutes or less), and Fastest (25 minutes or less). Others highlight easy methods or themes, including Supper Salads, Roast and Simmer and Easy Additions. And there's always time for pizza, tacos, "walk-away" recipes, one-pot wonders, ultrafast 20-minute miracles, and dessert. Great food in quick time, every night of the week.

Jacques Pépin More Fast Food My Way


Jacques Pépin - 2008
    Only Jacques could have come up with dishes so innovative and uncomplicated.“Minute recipes”: Nearly no-cook recipes fit for company: Cured Salmon Morsels, Glazed Sausage BitsSmashing appetizers: Scallop Pancakes, zipped together in a blender (10 minutes)Almost instant soups: Creamy Leek and Mushroom Soup (7 minutes)Fast, festive dinners: Stuffed Pork Fillet on Grape Tomatoes (18 minutes)Stunning desserts: Mini Almond Cakes in Raspberry Sauce (15 minutes)

Nadiya Bakes


Nadiya Hussain - 2020
    . . she was hooked! Baking soon became a part of her daily life.In her newest cookbook, based on her Netflix show and BBC series Nadiya Bakes, Nadiya shares more than 100 simple and achievable recipes for cakes, cookies, breads, tarts, and puddings that will become staples in your home. From Raspberry Amaretti Biscuits and Key Lime Cupcakes to Cheat's Sourdough and Spiced Squash Strudel, Nadiya has created an ultimate baking resource for just about every baked good that will entice beginner bakers and experienced pastry makers alike.

Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day


The Moosewood Collective - 1994
    Busy balancing home, work, and other commitments, they've been cooking for family and friends every day of the week for over twenty years. Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home is the result of that experience -- over 150 carefully honed and tested recipes calling for the best ingredients, accompanied by time-saving tips and planning suggestions, add up to a delicious whole-foods cuisine that is versatile and healthful and can be prepared with a minimum of effort.This book contains dishes full of exciting flavors, sure to please every taste, from savory soups to substantial main-dish salads, from hearty stews to palate-teasing "small dishes." Sauces, salsas and dressings, and a collection of almost-instant desserts turn the simplest meal into an occasion.Chapters on techniques and menu planning, lists of recipes for special needs, including nondairy and vegan fare and kid-pleasing food, as well as an in-depth guide to stocking the meatless pantry (including a list of recommended convenience foods), make Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home the essential companion to everyday cooking.

The Curry Guy


Dan Toombs - 2017
    In other words, Dan makes homemade curries that taste just like a takeaway from your favourite local but in less time and for less money. Dan has learnt through the comments left on his blog and social media feeds that people are terribly let down when they make a chicken korma or a prawn bhuna from other cookbooks and it taste nothing like the dish they experience when they visit a curry house…but they thank him for getting it right.

Delia's Frugal Food


Delia Smith - 1976
    At a time when money worries are front-page news, Britain's most trusted cook, Delia Smith, is once again at hand with a collection of recipes that are cost-cutting and easy to prepare.

The Green Roasting Tin: Vegan and Vegetarian One Dish Dinners


Rukmini Iyer - 2018
    ‘This book will earn a place in kitchens up and down the country’ Nigella Lawson Seventy-five one-tin recipes: half vegan, half vegetarian, all delicious.With all seventy-five recipes in this book, you simply pop your ingredients in a tin and let the oven do the work.From flexitarians to families, this book is for anyone who wants to eat easy veg-based meals that fit around their busy lives.

What Katie Ate on the Weekend


Katie Quinn Davies - 2014
    In this superb follow-up, What Katie Ate on the Weekend, Davies focuses on her favorite simple dishes for weekend entertaining. More than a hundred delicious new recipes for flavor-packed pizzas and pastas, tapas, cocktails, and decadent desserts are included here, along with stories from Davies’s own dinner parties and Sunday brunches. Readers will learn how to minimize their time spent in the kitchen and maximize the enjoyment of delicious meals shared with friends and family. Beautifully photographed in Davies’s signature rustic style—and peppered with anecdotes and images from her travels in far-flung locales such as Italy and Ireland—What Katie Ate on the Weekend will bewitch food lovers and armchair travelers alike.

The Vegan Stoner Cookbook: 100 Easy Vegan Recipes to Munch


Sarah Conrique - 2013
    Now they invite home cooks into this universe of indie veganism, presenting foolproof recipes that will be a hit with every slacker, penny-pincher, and hipster on the block. With easy recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and munchies, this is a gateway cookbook for anyone who wants to eat fewer animal products and more veggies.

The Tassajara Bread Book


Edward Espe Brown - 1970
    It requires nurturing and care. In this twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the international best-seller that started a generation of Americans baking, Ed Brown shows how to make—and enjoy—breads, pastries, muffins, and desserts for today's sophisticated palates. And in a new afterword, he reflects on the widespread influence of the book and offers five new recipes.This is 2010. I have just purchased a new copy of this book, which I first owned back in 1970 or 1971. I love them and use them until they fall apart. I believe they are a GREAT introduction to breakmaking for a new baker, and an excellent wedding gift.

Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round


Marisa McClellan - 2011
     Popular food blogger and doyenne of canning, Marisa McClellan, is using small batches and inventive flavors to make preserving easy enough for any novice to tackle. If you grew up eating home-preserved jams and pickles, or even if you're new to putting up, you'll find recipes to savor. Sample any of the 100 seasonal recipes:In the spring: Apricot Jam and Rhubarb SyrupIn the summer: Blueberry Butter and Peach SalsaIn the fall: Dilly Beans and Spicy Pickled CauliflowerIn the winter: Three-Citrus Marmalade and Cranberry KetchupMarisa's confident, practical voice answers questions and quells any fears of accidental canning mistakes, and the book is written for cooks of any skill level. Stories of wild blackberry jam and California Meyer lemon marmalade from McClellan's childhood make for a read as pleasurable as it is delicious; her home-canned food-learned from generations of the original "foodies"-feeds the soul as well as the body.

Maangchi's Big Book of Korean Cooking: From Everyday Meals to Celebration Cuisine


Maangchi - 2019
    Maangchi’s Big Book of Korean Cooking is a wide, deep journey to the heart of a food-obsessed culture. The book contains the favorite dishes Maangchi has perfected over the years, from Korean barbecue and fried chicken to bulgogi and bibimbap. It explores topics not covered in other Korean cookbooks, from the vegan fare of Buddhist mountain temples to the inventive snacks of street vendors to the healthful, beautiful lunch boxes Korean mothers make for their kids. Maangchi has updated and improved the traditional dishes, without losing their authentic spirit. Among the features: • Spectacular party food, from homemade clear rice liquor to sweet, spicy, sour baby back ribs • Side plates that support and complement every Korean meal • Soups, hotpots, and stews, from bone broth to tofu stews • An array of different kimchis • A detailed photographic chapter on Korean cooking techniques Hundreds of striking, full-color photos by Maangchi show Korean ingredients so the cook knows exactly what to buy, step-by-step techniques for each recipe, and tempting close-ups of every dish.

The Fannie Farmer Cookbook


Marion Cunningham - 1979
    Completely updating it for the first time since 1979, Marion Cunningham made Fannie Farmer once again a household word for a new generation of cooks.What makes this basic cookbook so distinctive is that Marion Cunningham, who is the personification of the nineteenth-century teacher, is always at your side with her forthright tips and comments, encouraging the beginning cook and inspiring the more adventurous. She knows what today's cooks are looking for, and she has a way of instilling confidence and joy in the act of cooking.In giving the book new life, Mrs. Cunningham has been careful always to preserve the best of the old. She has retained all the particularly good, tried-and-true recipes from preceding editions, retesting and rewriting when necessary. She has rediscovered lost treasures, including delicious recipes that were eliminated when practically no one baked bread at home. This is now the place to find the finest possible recipes for Pumpkin Soup, Boston Baked Beans, Carpetbag Steak, Roast Stuffed Turkey, Anadama Bread, Indian Pudding, Apple Pie, and all of the other traditional favorites.The new recipes reflect ethnic influences--Mediterranean, Moroccan, Asian--that have been adding their flavors to American cooking in recent years. Tucked in among all your favorites like Old-Fashioned Beef Stew, New England Clam Chowder, Ham Timbales, and Chicken Jambalaya, you'll find her cool Cucumber Sushi, Enchiladas with Chicken and Green Sauce, or a layered dish of Polenta and Fish to add variety to your repertoire. Always a champion of old-fashioned breakfasts and delectable desserts, Mrs. Cunningham has many splendid new offerings to tempt you.Throughout, cooking terms and procedures are explained, essential ingredients are spelled out, basic equipment is assessed. Mrs. Cunningham even tells you how to make a good cup of coffee and how to brew tea properly.For the diet-conscious, there is an expanded nutritional chart that includes a breakdown of cholesterol and fat in common ingredients as well as in Fannie Farmer basic recipes. Where the taste of a dish would not be altered, Mrs. Cunningham has reduced the amount of cream and butter in some of the recipes from the preceding edition. She carefully evaluates the issues of food safety today and alerts us to potential hazards.But the emphasis here is always on good flavor, fresh ingredients, and lots of variety in one's daily fare, which Marion Cunningham believes is the secret to a healthy diet. Dedicated to the home cooks of America, young and old, this thirteenth edition of the book that won the hearts of Americans more than a century ago invites us all--as did the original Fannie Farmer--to cherish the delights of the family table.